Court Castle |
Hob Uid: 34208 | |
Location : Devon Torridge Winkleigh
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Grid Ref : SS6333008220 |
Summary : A medieval motte and bailey situated at the eastern edge of the village of Winkleigh. The monument survives as an oval-shaped, flat-topped motte with a rectangular mound on its north eastern corner, a ditch which is well defined to the north and west of the motte, but which survives as a buried feature elsewhere, and a D-shaped bailey which has been incorporated into the gardens of the nearby Winkleigh Court. The motte measures 92 metres long from north to south and 67 metres wide at its base. It ranges in height from 1.8 metres on the north western side to 10.1 metres on the south eastern side. The flattened top of the mound measures 62 metres long from north to south and 45.2 metres wide from east to west. In the north eastern quadrant there is a rectangular mound which may represent the original height of the motte. This measures 21.5 metres long from east to west, 16 metres wide from north to south at its base and is 2.2 metres high. The ditch surrounding the mound is evident to the north and east, where it measures up to 15 metres wide and 1.7 metres deep, with a 2 metre wide flat bottom. The motte and bailey once formed part of extensive formal gardens attached to Winkleigh Court. During the 18th century a brick-built banqueting house was erected on the summit of the motte. The motte and bailey are thought to date to the late 11th or early 12th centuries, when William II passed the land to Robert Fitz Roy, later the Earl of Gloucester. Scheduled. |
More information : (SS 63320822) Court Castle (NR) (site of) (NAT). (1)
The rampart of Court Castle has gone, leaving a plateau with an escarpment of 12 feet on the south-west, broken by a terrace. The remnant of a fosse on the north makes a curve at its eastern extremity, and indicates an approach by a sunken road. (2)
Court Castle seems to have been a small Norman castle site, or fortified manor house. (3)
Court Castle is a large mound 4.5m high with an outer ditch 3.0m deep which survives only around the north. The flat top, 60.0m by 45.0m has probably been landscaped. There is an 18th century folly in the centre and a 2.5m high mound of earth at the north end. It is uncertain whether this represents the original height or whether it is dumping. If the former, the considerable amount of earth removed could have been used to level the garden immediately to the south of Winkleigh Court, where there is a terrace 1.5m high. This terrace does not seem to represent the perimeter of a motte and bailey.
The ringwork is substantial and more like a formal castle site than an adulterine work such as the nearby Croft Castle. OS 1:2500 revised. (4)
Scheduled listing. (5)
Listed by Cathcart King. (6) |